Over 250 therapy leaders gathered in Newport Beach to create a Therapy Leadership Experience powered by love! The theme of this year’s experience resonated throughout our amazing two days together spent in learning, loving and leading. Beginning with an optional yoga session in the outdoor amphitheater each morning and continuing with healthy meal and snack options combined with fresh flowers and an indoor/outdoor ambiance, the tone of the event centered on wellness.
The WELL Project Team provided context to the idea of creating a wellness movement with the goal of not only helping ourselves, but also leading by example to positively impact all with whom we come in contact. Leaders provided written notes of gratitude, WELL Commitments and ideas for inspiring wellness among one another. Our Therapy Director, Mary Spaeder, provided a beautiful reminder about our ability to choose our response to all that we face in life and leadership, while reinforcing the use of tools and techniques such as heart rate variability training to help us build our resilience.
We experienced an awesome opportunity of interacting with some of our great organizational leaders. Barry Port, Bev Wittekind, Soon Burnam, Clay Christensen, Debbie Miller, Tyler Douglas and Spencer Burton all spent valuable time sharing thought-provoking lessons on leadership and learning. Following the recommendation of our 2018 Summit Leaders, Mike Dalton joined us to stimulate our thinking about life and leadership.
The learning and sharing of best practices for enhancing outcomes-based care of our LTC residents, outpatient program development, therapy utilization techniques and tools, business development, clinical program development and the inner workings and considerations for functioning in a Patient-Driven Payment Model environment were central to our 19 different Think Tank Sessions and over 40 Poster Sessions presented at the event. We invited CMS Leader, John Kane, who shared brilliant insight and led a dynamic Q and A session allowing our leaders to get a close-up view of the rationale behind a PDPM and the CMS perspective on hopeful outcomes from the reimbursement system.
Ultimately, we left the experience more enlightened and overflowing with joy and love for an organization that values our growth and supports our passion for learning.
As Mary so beautifully shared during her opening remarks through the words of Rabindranath Tagore:
I slept and dreamt that life was joy
I awoke and saw that joy was service
I acted and behold, service was joy
The 2019 Experience calls us to continue our quest toward Joy in Leadership and the unexpected power of leading with love!
Thanks to Alan Gibby for lots of great photos! Click here for Part 1 … and Part 2
Got Joy? The therapists, nurses, residents and IDT members at Mt. Ogden Nursing and Rehab do, and they are sharing these joyful moments through messages and photos. How will you inspire a WELL movement like DOR Brooke Stanley and her team did?